Impact of Aging on the Quality of Life of Workers with Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

The increased life-expectancy of people with intellectual disability is generating new needs for attention and care that can assist healthy aging. This question is accentuated among workers from Special Employment Centers, for whom aging has a twofold impact, in so far as it interferes with their professional development and their means of earning a living. A study is conducted with a sample of 49 workers from a Special Employment Center, with the objective of analyzing the impact of ageing on the quality of life of people with intellectual disability aged over 45 years old. The information was gathered with the INICO-FEAPS Integral Evaluation Scale of the Quality of Life of People with Intellectual Disability (Verdugo, Gómez, Arias, Santamaría, Clavero & Tamarit, 2013). The Mann-Whitney U test; the Spearman test and Anovas are used for data analysis. The results highlighted the importance of age on quality-of-life deterioration, evident from lower scores for emotional wellbeing, social inclusion and social relations, among others, as well as the differences according to gender and training of the group. The need is noted to establish challenges and proposals that will minimize the negative impacts of aging on the journey towards a non-active stage. One limitation of the study is the need for larger sample sizes.